Naidu meets Gowda for uniting opposition parties

Bengaluru: TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday met Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda in Bengaluru in a bid to unite the opposition parties against the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections.

"The meeting with former Prime Minister Deve Gowda and Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was an initial exercise to unite the opposition parties," Naidu told reporters after an hour-long meet at Gowda's residence in the city's southwestern suburb.

The opposition parties will work together to "save" Indian democracy, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo said.

"Under the NDA government, all autonomous institutions like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have been destroyed," he added.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's policies like demonetisation have thrown the country's economy into a crisis, Naidu claimed.

"It is the responsibility of the opposition parties to join hands and save the democracy," he stressed.

Naidu's meeting with the JD-S leaders comes a week after he met Congress President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on November 1 as part of his effort to unify the opposition.

"We discussed the future course of action for forging an alliance ahead of the 2019 general elections," Gowda told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting with Naidu was to bring together the "secular forces" in the country, said Kumaraswamy.

"Chandrababu Naidu is working hard, as a co-ordinator, to unite the secular parties ahead of the upcoming general elections. We (Naidu and JD-S leadership) share good political arithmetics and have been friends," the Chief Minister added.